Rich Coppola

Sports Director

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Rich Coppola has been a part of FOX61 since March of 1989, working as the station’s Sports Director.

An East Haven, Connecticut native, Rich began his broadcasting career in radio at KC 101 in New Haven. From there, he continued his career working as a field producer for ESPN and then as a sportscaster at the NBC affiliate in Springfield, Mass.

In addition to preparing and delivering nightly sportscasts for the FOX61 5 p.m. News and the News at 10 p.m., Rich also anchors The Comcast Sports Desk Powered By Xfinity, Connecticut’s only prime-time weekend sports wrap-up program which airs locally Saturdays and Sundays at 10:45 pm. The show has been nominated on several occasions for a New England Emmy Award.

On eight occasions, including 2012, Rich has been honored by the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association (NSSA) as the winner of the Connecticut Sportscaster of the Year. In 1991 and 1997, he won the Associated Press Award for best sportscast.

Rich is a graduate of the University of New Haven in New Haven, Connecticut. Rich and his wife Sue have a daughter.

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Recent Articles

WALLINGFORD — Former SCSU men’s basketball coach Michael Papale, was on the verge of reaching his ultimate dream: playing college basketball. He went into cardiac arrest when he was just 17-years-old in 2006. Since then, he has taken that near-death experience and used it as an outlet to raise awareness. In 2015, Papale started his own non-profit foundation called “In A Heartbeat.” Their mission is to prevent death from sudden cardiac arrest and Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy. The foundation buys and then donates […]

CROMWELL — Heading into the final round and last day of the Travelers, Rich caught up with Executive Vice President and Chief Administrative Officer of Travelers Andy Bessette to talk about this years tournament after the third round on Saturday.

CROMWELL — A relatively new competition rule and some unusual perks have helped bring some of golf’s biggest names to Connecticut this week for the Travelers Championship. Rory McIlroy, Jason Day, Jordan Spieth and Bubba Watson are among those playing at TPC River Highlands. Spieth’s and McIlroy’s participation fulfills their obligations under a 2016 PGA Tour rule that requires players who didn’t start at least 25 tournaments in the previous season to add an event that they hadn’t played in […]

DALLAS — Before she played for the Huskies, she was a fan of the Huskies. “Going up in Western Massachusetts, I was being recruited and I was a sophomore and junior in high school, that’s the team I want to play for. I was at Gampel for their win against Clemson, I was there for those early tournament games before they went on to play in the Final Four that year,” said ESPN‘s Rebecca Lobo. She was a big part of […]

HAMDEN — Quinnipiac University held a Sweet 16 send off rally for the women’s basketball team who are set to take on No . 1 South Carolina Saturday at 4 p.m. in Stockton, California. The team won their first ever NCAA Tournament game after defeating No. 5 Marquette, 68-65, in the first round of the tournament. In their next game, they defeated No. 4 Miami Hurricanes, 85-78. FOX61’s Rich Coppola caught up with the team before they took off to their […]

HARTFORD — Coaching is about much more than x’s and o’s. Joe Yotch seemed to have a great understanding of just that. Maybe that came from serving in the Marines. Yotch was an assistant coach and helped Housatonic Community College to the Junior College World Series in the late 70’s. Yotch was part of Dan Gooley’s Quinnipiac team that went to the Division II World Series in 1983. Yotch found great success coaching in the West Haven Twilight League. But, […]

NEW HAVEN — Michael Papale, was on the verge of reaching his ultimate dream: playing college basketball. But he came very close to losing it all, but the actions of Bob Heubner, a volunteer EMT, made a difference. Now, Papale, the assistant men’s basketball coach of Southern Connecticut State University has joined forces with Heubner, the man who he credits with saving his life. Papale and Heubner have come together for an organization called “In A Heartbeat”. The mission is to help prevent […]

STORRS — Gabby Williams scored a career-high 26 points and Napheesa Collier added 18 to help top-ranked UConn to its 100th consecutive victory with a 66-55 win over No. 6 South Carolina in Storrs, Connecticut on Monday night. Coach Geno Auriemma never thought his team would come close to reaching the century mark, let alone break the previous NCAA record set by the Huskies from 2008-10. The Hall of Fame coach set up the most difficult non-conference schedule in the country, […]

EAST HAVEN — The East Haven Hockey team is undefeated through seven games. And leading the charge is Freshman Forward Nick Capone. Before his 15th Birthday, Capone gave a verbal commitment to the University of Maine to play for the Black Bears.

BRIDGEPORT — Connecticut has four Division 1 men’s college hockey programs, and they all have their own home ice. Yale plays at Ingalls Rink, Quinnipiac at the TD Bank Sports Center, and UConn at the XL Center. But while Sacred Heart was playing at the Milford ICE Pavillion, that had more of a high school hockey rink feel. This year, the team took a big slide as the Pioneers started calling the Webster Bank Arena in Bridgeport home. The team’s […]